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Jeff Arend and his Havoline Deposit Shield Funny Car team were completely unsure what sort of landscape they were trudging into after rain and saturating humidity had limited Friday's qualifying to one late session, which was contested in muggy conditions on a totally green track. What they found was more bite than they had bargained for, and Arend's Impala shook at the hit of the throttle, limited him to an early shut-off 10.133, which was still good enough for the No. 14 spot on this "hit or miss" day.
"After the rain shower, we knew they had started to dry the track and drag it but had run into some pretty bad issues with the original rubber rolling up and peeling off," Arend said. "The Safety Safari went to work on what was, essentially, a totally green track and it with the humidity right up there by 100 percent, it was pretty easy to convince yourself that there couldn't be much out there. We should have known they'd do whatever it took to give us a good track, because we were a little under-tuned for the grip that was out there, and it shook hard enough I had to shut it off. I guess we're lucky in one way, though, because some other good teams had problems making the right call too, and we're in some pretty good company down at the bottom of the qualifying sheet. We'll just come back out here on Saturday and get after it."
RICHMOND SHAKE RATTLES AREND INTO 14th SPOT
Jeff Arend and his Havoline Deposit Shield Funny Car team were completely unsure what sort of landscape they were trudging into after rain and saturating humidity had limited Friday's qualifying to one late session, which was contested in muggy conditions on a totally green track. What they found was more bite than they had bargained for, and Arend's Impala shook at the hit of the throttle, limited him to an early shut-off 10.133, which was still good enough for the No. 14 spot on this "hit or miss" day.
"After the rain shower, we knew they had started to dry the track and drag it but had run into some pretty bad issues with the original rubber rolling up and peeling off," Arend said. "The Safety Safari went to work on what was, essentially, a totally green track and it with the humidity right up there by 100 percent, it was pretty easy to convince yourself that there couldn't be much out there. We should have known they'd do whatever it took to give us a good track, because we were a little under-tuned for the grip that was out there, and it shook hard enough I had to shut it off. I guess we're lucky in one way, though, because some other good teams had problems making the right call too, and we're in some pretty good company down at the bottom of the qualifying sheet. We'll just come back out here on Saturday and get after it."
